Home is not renting!

[Bruno Torres]

Hi everyone,

I was renting my previous home for about 2 years until the tenants left on dec 22nd. I have been showing the house since the beginning of November and i've shown it to about 50 people so far, I've had 0 applications.

My house is priced at the higher end and this is because i have very little cash flow The advantage of being a landlord is the equity that i'm building by covering property tax, insurance and mortgage with the rent price. However, i've reduced the rent price for $200 and i should cash flow $100 a month.This will barely covers an appliance breaking.

As of now, i think it's unlikely that i'll have a tenant move in until March 1st, i'm taking money from my main home's emergency fund and i started to seriously consider selling the home now. Things that i've noticed:

* the north oakland area (where my home is located) may have lost its attractiveness (car break-ins, crazy people, etc)

* there are a lot new condo constructions that are offering crazy specials, a friend had his property (a condo) vacant for 3 months.

I dont know how to analyze the situation , there are a couple of options:

1) Suck it up until April, wait until someone rents in may

2) Sell the home - i dont have high hopes, the home had a redfin estimate of 1.4 mill at some point, it now has an estimate of 1.1 mill, but i dont think i'll get more than 1 mill if i'm lucky.

Are there tips to increase the home attractiveness? i've listed on zillow and people are coming, they are just not applying.

[Basit Siddiqi]

First - The price you can charge in rent has no correlation to what you are paying in your mortgage.
You have to charge what is fair market value for what the rent is.

If you lower the price, you will eventually find a tenant.